Won Dong-wook, a professor of China studies at Dong-A University in Busan, noted that the sharp growth of such exchanges is a root cause of anti-Korea sentiment in China and therefore is also a key to easing it.

“Given that Chinese students who have a hard time adapting to Korea and Korean universities tend to cause the negative sentiment through social media, I believe university authorities will need to adopt more stringent admissions policies,” he said.

Won said that currently, universities accept most Chinese students who express their intention to study here without imposing a strict admission process just to make money.

These young Chinese have an understanding of the Korean language and culture, and tweet the negative aspects of Korea to their friends and followers in China so that they can see them. Their friends then retweet this information, giving Chinese bloggers a bad impression of the country.

Imnagine, if you will millions of Chinese ‘Q’s commenting on Korea. Well, guess it’s no longer needing imagination, is it?

Veritas

Need to adopt more stringent admissions policies?
That seems like a strange excuse given that the article points out that the negative comments are coming from Chinese students “who have a hard time adapting to Korea and Korean universities”. Wouldn’t it be far more meaningful to create some kind of program that helps these students adapt to Korea? Besides, what sort of “stringent policy” are they thinking about? Only accepting students who sign a written oath “not to spread any negative information regarding their time in South Korea”?

Q

#2, 지랄도 유분수.

hamel

The article seems to have its cake and eat it to:

Given that Chinese students who have a hard time adapting to Korea and Korean universities tend to cause the negative sentiment through social media

but

These young Chinese have an understanding of the Korean language and culture,

SometimesOften I feel that KTimes journalists don’t ask any follow-up questions when they see a contradiction, and then just write it up in the story without comment.

hamel

Q: I try to be sympathetic to you, really I do, but realize that you are no better than them.

Q

I feel closer to chinese than whities. I lost my respect to whities.

http://www.san-shin.org sanshinseon

Well, i’ve had a lot of Chinese students in my Univ classes, and have seen the problems. Most don’t know any Korean. They’re supposed to study in E, but due to lack of proper screening some can’t handle it — not even my clear-slow-simple E, much less a K prof mangling his E. Most are accustomed to easily getting high grades in Ch, and then get angry over failure here. Also, most are not accustomed to the competitiveness in K classrooms. For a group presentation assignment, no Ks want to work with the Ch — breeds resentment.

Ssamzi

The article doesn’t make perfect sense but it’s KT. For better marks in group projects, local students may tend to avoid working with foreign students who have serious trouble with the language. The foreign students then might feel they are being ostracized and ignored. It’s worse if they are not very motivated bright students who cannot adapt quickly. The schools need to be a little more picky with admission and offer intensive KSL courses to the foreign students.

hamel

Q:

I feel closer to chinese than whities. I lost my respect to whities.

That is quite a revealing admission, Q.

You and those like you might have a rude awakening in a few years, when you realize that, while you had been looking to Japan as the eternal threat to Korea, China had been carefully sharpening her claws and preparing a new Yuan Shi-kai.

I don’t look forward to that day, Q.

Veritas

#8
That explanation makes much more sense than the article – although it seems to point more to the Chinese students simply being “unready” than there being any fault with the Korean universities. It reminds me of an incident back in college (in the U.S.) when one of the Asian students studying abroad complained to the professor about getting a “B” for his essay. I can’t recall which country he was from but the reasoning he gave was really rather superb – he basically stated that he should get an A because he always gets an A (or used to back where he came from).

Quite an argument, I must say.

bumfromkorea

I don’t have too much trouble imagining that the Korean universities are just accepting anyone and everyone from China just to make $$$. Above all, it’s not fair to the Chinese students who come to Korea expecting a good education.

Nothing is worse than sitting in a class where you can’t understand the language being used – except having a Chinese int’l grad student who “speaks” English (like I “speak” French) as the TA.

Arghaeri

SometimesOften I feel that KTimes journalists don’t ask any follow-up questions when they see a contradiction, and then just write it up in the story without comment.

What contradiction do you see Hamel?

I have an understanding if korean culture, but it isn’t always a positve one, nor one thats necessarily easy to get along with.

Hamilton

“I feel closer to chinese than whities. I lost my respect to whities.”

Yes, I agree.

You have lost any respect you might have expected from any westerner due to your racism.

Q

Well, I have lived positive about whities for the most of my life. Spending time for a while here at TMH, my sentiment has changed. I got impression whities (though not all of them are such) are covert racists, even though they learned not to express it.

hamel

Q:

I feel closer to chinese than whities. I lost my respect to whities.

That is quite a revealing admission, Q.

You might have a rude awakening in a few years, when you realize that, while you had been looking to Japan as the eternal threat to Korea, China had been carefully sharpening her claws and preparing a new Yuan Shi-kai.

Do you understand what I mean, Q?

http://ulsanonline.com martypants

egads! I think they’ve just stumbled upon the cure for all the bad English teachers here, too. Limit the visas, limit the …

brier

The waegs love to air the local dirty laundry. The locals love to air brush away the dirt. What a fun game!

cm

Touching back on what sanshinseon has said. The English language article doesn’t explain clearly but there have been many Korean news articles states what the problem is. Like BumfromKorea said, it’s the fault of the universities in Korea who, in a drive to collect tuition for their schools, are scraping the bottom of the barrels to accept anybody foreign, even if they are not academically and linguistically qualified.
Korean higher institute of learning are in crisis because of the low birth rate and there are not enough Korean students to fill the university classrooms. The result is that Korean schools are competing with each other to fill the empty seats in the classrooms with foreign students. If you are Chinese, you have money, but you are not academically qualified to study in the West, Korea has a deal for you. So are we surprised at what sanshinseon noticed in his classrooms? How can anyone follow class instructions if they cannot even communicate basic language? Those Chinese students lacking communication skills with Korean students, culturally isolated, end up being left out and alienated. Alienation leads to disgruntlement, and Korean student’s resent the Chinese students, feeding a vicious cycle of disgruntlement from both sides.

Benjamin Wagner

See? Limit the contacts, and you limit the negativity!

You’re teasing here, but in seriousness hasn’t this been the proposed approach to dealing with the “problems” of multiculturalism and racism? Limiting the contacts with other races and cultures by keeping them out?

Reminds me of a section from Joyce’s Ulysses:

. . . Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know that? No. And do you know why?
He frowned sternly on the bright air.
— Why, sir? Stephen asked, beginning to smile.
— Because she never let them in, Mr Deasy said solemnly.
A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a rattling chain of phlegm. He turned back quickly, coughing, laughing, his lifted arms waving to the air.
— She never let them in, he cried again through his laughter as he stamped on gaitered feet over the gravel of the path. That’s why.

http://www.san-shin.org sanshinseon

I will note that some of the Chinese students (20%?) had excellent English, sat up front and were great students (often willing to speak up more than comparable Koreans), got A+ all the way. That triggered a different sort of disgruntled reaction from the Ks, of course.

http://www.zenkimchi.com/FoodJournal ZenKimchi

This is why “The Yangpa” folded. The Korean media makes its own jokes.

RolyPoly

They should have all Chinese students to live in one dorm only and limit internet access from the building so that they cannot post anti-Korean stories.

The Chinese students will feel – just like home.

Arghaeri

Zdon’t be silly Baduk, they’re allowed to write anti-korean post at home

Q

@ hamel,

I abominate PRC, but have more sympathy on common Chinese over whities who are more advantaged in Korea.

YangachiBastardo

cm @ # 19: great now we are facing a process of ghettoization of Academia…i was trying to feel ooptimistic this morning

slim

CM: “The result is that Korean schools are competing with each other to fill the empty seats in the classrooms with foreign students. If you are Chinese, you have money, but you are not academically qualified to study in the West, Korea has a deal for you.”

US campuses are also facing this problem, made worse by endemic credential fraud and cheating in China, where there are companies that write admission essays for students. Foreigners pay full tuition at a time of budget pressures.

I would think that friction in Korea is made worse by the traditional Chinese mindset that looks down on former tributary states, like Korea.

Q

I would think that friction in Korea is made worse by the traditional Chinese mindset that looks down on former tributary states, like Korea.

I agree with slim on this.

AED

yea, made worse… but the koreans don’t help either, especially those who think they’re better than others.. i’m trying to understand why koreans think they’re such hot shit. must be the modernization that’s gone to their heads.

Q

AED: your shit smells shit.

YangachiBastardo

I would think that friction in Korea is made worse by the traditional Chinese mindset that looks down on former tributary states, like Korea

Once an Ethiopian guy told me that nothing is worse than being ruled by a poor master

hamel

Ben Wagner: you, Sir, are a fraud.

Nobody has ever read Ulysses. .

hamel

Yangachi: are you still in Seoul? I’m quite curious to meet you.

YangachiBastardo

hamel: no i went back to Milano last friday :(…won’t be long til next visit as things are moving fast here

hamel

YB: What does that mean, moving fast? Are you re-settling here?

YangachiBastardo

YB: What does that mean, moving fast? Are you re-settling here?

Crossing my fingers but if this time i don’t do the stupid shit i did in 2009-2010 when we were planning to move to Hong-Kong, i will finally make it !!

hamel

YB: cool, I think. That’s just what I need, a new, more dangerous drinking partner!

If you email Robert the Marmot Koehler, he will pass my email address onto you, or vice versa.

http://www.sperwerslog.com Sperwer

@32

I read it in high school, with my girl friend’s father. It was the condition of gaining his permission to date his daughter.

hamel

That sounds like a stream-of-consciousness nightmare how did the father test whether you had read it all I mean how could he feasibly ascertain whether you had read it or just the Cliff notes if such a thing exists how old are you then did the dates go well what do you think of the book?

http://www.sperwerslog.com Sperwer

I had to sit with him 4 hours a week and read it together. It was worth it. I thought the book was awfully self-indulgent.

http://gypsyscholarship.blogspot.com/ jefferyhodges

Hamel, are you possibly thinking of Finnegans Wake? Ulysses is readable, for I’ve read it. But Finnegans Wake? Utterly unreadable! I got about a quarter way through and asked “Why?”

I ought to have asked that after the first sentence . . .

Jeffery Hodges

* * *

http://www.sperwerslog.com Sperwer

My girl friend’s father had FW next on the list, but they moved away overseas before we got to it. Thank God. It is unreadable.

Benjamin Wagner

Hamel,

I may or may not be a fraud, but I’ve read (and enjoyed reading) Ulysses.